


Here be Monsters

by cupidsbow



Series: Role Confusion [3]
Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Character Study, Confessions, Getting to Know Each Other, Other, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 10:16:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17041865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cupidsbow/pseuds/cupidsbow
Summary: Venom confesses his sins.





	Here be Monsters

**Author's Note:**

> This is the third part of a series of stories I have planned about Venom and Eddie getting to know each other. This story will make more sense if you've read the others first, but mostly stands alone.
> 
> See warnings in the End Notes.

One of Venom’s favourite moments each day was the lazy stretch of time after doing dishes and brushing teeth and before Eddie fell asleep. Eddie would lie on the bed in the nest of sheets and blankets, and Venom would curl up onto his chest. Then Eddie would touch them and touch them, filling his blood with contended hormones and making them both feel good. His fingers would drag slower as the minutes ticked by, nearly stopping and then occasionally rallying -- if a police siren went by, or a neighbour screamed, “You’re a fucking piece of shit, Jerry,” followed by a lot of door slamming and cats yowling -- until he would finally sink into unconsciousness. It was nearly always a deep sleep, hard to disturb, and it puzzled them. What kind of apex predator slept like that? Without one eye half open for threats? Venom had come to the conclusion that it was either a very foolish creature, or a very safe one, and they thought perhaps that was what all the endless human rules were for -- safety.

They were starting to feel it too, the safety of these quiet moments each night. They felt like maybe they could tell Eddie anything when they were like this, that Eddie could know all the parts of them, and he would just kiss them and love them, and then turn over to go to sleep with his arm around them, just like always. The idea of it made them yearn to be known, as they had never allowed themselves to dream of before.

They nudged up into Eddie’s fingers the next time they stopped, and the patting sluggishly started up again.

**_Eddie?_ **

“Hmmm?”

Venom thought of the night sky far overhead, the darkness and cold they had come from. They were hidden from it here in this nest of brick and warmth and human shelter. It made the stars seem a long way away.

“What’s up, sweetheart?”

**_Why are ceilings always white?_ **

Eddie chuckled. “I don’t know. To make rooms seem bigger? Or maybe they’re just too hard to reach.”

 **_I can reach it._ **They extended a tendril upwards until it brushed against the plaster.

“So you can. You wanna put something up there?”

**_Like what?_ **

“A picture?” Eddie’s brain flashed across a dozen famous paintings. “A mobile?” A toy for babies with spaceships or sea creatures. “Glow in the dark stars?”

**_Yes!_ **

“Okay, we’ll get some.” Eddie kissed their head. “Is that all you wanted?”

They thought about their secret, but didn’t know if they were ready to tell. There were always more questions, though. **_You said you’d tell us why some people have been rejected from their Hive and live without a home._ **

Eddie’s sleepy brain took a while to translate _hive_ to _family_ , and then his memories flashed to Maria and his blood filled with sadness _._ “Well, a lot of the time it’s not so much that they’re rejected. Sometimes bad things happen. Their loved ones die, or they have a medical issue, or they run out of money and can’t get more. Once that chain of events starts, it can be hard to stop it. They can’t afford a place to live, or food, or clothes. And we tend to blame people for that, instead of helping them, which makes it even harder to fix the problems and get back on track.”

**_Like Annie blamed you?_ **

Eddie turned to look at him, eyes glistening in the light coming in the window. “Not the same thing. She didn’t blame me for a run of bad luck. I hurt her. She was just protecting herself, which was fair enough. Sometimes even if you’re sorry, you can’t fix things completely when you make a mistake like that. You just have to learn from it and not make the same mistake again.”

**_But she made you leave your Hive, and now you worry about money._ **

“Is that what you’re fretting about? You don’t need to. We’re getting to a good place now. We’ll be okay.” Eddie’s hand ran in long soothing strokes along their body, occasionally digging in a little, just the way they liked it. “And even if things go bad again, you can keep us fed on rats and seagulls, right?” Eddie’s teeth flash white as he laughed a little at the memory of Venom trying -- and failing -- to catch a seagull a few days ago.

Eddie was teasing them, but Venom didn’t mind. There was something comforting about the idea that even if they lost their nest, even if they were hungry again, they would still be a Hive -- a _family_ \-- together. Eddie wouldn’t leave them.

“I won’t leave unless you want me to, sweetheart. You don’t have to worry about that.”

 **_No leaving! You are mine!_ ** Venom wrapped a tether a little more tightly around Eddie’s liver, and when Eddie stayed warm and amused and accepting, they finally felt brave enough to confess. **_We had to leave our Hive_**. **_The Agents made us. They said we were bad. Corrupted. That our mistakes could not be fixed. They said we could not be Klyntar anymore._ **

Eddie pressed his face against theirs. “Oh, love. That must have been hard.”

They shivered. Hearing the Agents’ decree had been _pain-terror-loss_ , but something about Eddie’s sympathy made the memory hurt even more.

They whispered the worst part of the secret. **_I didn’t want to be alone._ **

They had stayed out of fear, but their replacement Hive had been angry and chaotic and hungry. Riot had been one of those to rise, to lead the way to invasion and conquest. Their exile had become an endless feast on world after world, Host after Host. He shared some of it with Eddie -- the way their Hosts had hated them; the way their Hosts had died.

Venom had just wanted to go home.

**_Do you think we’re bad, Eddie? Corrupted?_ **

Eddie’s breath against their surface was warm and damp. It tasted nice, even with the trace of mint from his toothpaste. “I think… we can be whatever we want. We just have to work at it. I think being good takes practice.”

 **_Like reading._ ** Reading seemed easy when Eddie did it, but it was _hard._

“Yeah,” Eddie said. “Like reading. But we can help each other, can’t we? It’s easier together.”

 **_Yes._ **Venon conceded, feeling wrung out, but content. Eddie knew of their shame now and was still theirs. They would make a good Hive together.

“The best hive,” Eddie agreed as he slid into sleep.

\--

In the morning, Venom dragged his carton of eggs over to the TV and turned on Sesame Street while Eddie was cooking his own breakfast, the single anchoring cord between them tucked up along the bottom of the cupboards and out of the way of Eddie’s feet. They waited impatiently for the alphabet song. They were starting to see the point of singing. They couldn’t hear all the same tones that Eddie could, but the rhythms made it easier to remember long strings of information. Unfortunately, Eddie’s brain couldn’t help but sing along when the song was actually playing, which made it feel like Venom knew the letters too. After the song was over, they muted the TV and practiced again on their own.

**_A, B, C, D..._ **

“Good work, buddy!”

 **_E, F, G…_ ** What came next?

“H.”

 **_H, I, J, K, elemeno, P...._ **Was it V next? No. Something else. They crunched on an egg despondently.

“Q,” Eddie prompted, but they couldn’t remember any more.

Eddie turned off the stove and came over to the couch. “You got all the way to P today. That’s pretty good.”

Venom agreed. They were getting better, but it was _hard_ and letters made _no sense_ and it was much easier just to use Eddie’s brain.

“You’ll get it,” Eddie said, rubbing the top of their head. “You’re learning faster than human kids.”

Venom knew this. They had already almost caught up to Bella in learning the alphabet, but couldn’t yet write their name without Eddie’s brain helping them. They butted up against Eddie’s hand, and he obligingly dug his nails in a little, making them shiver in pleasure.

Sesame Street moved on to the next segment, Cookie Monster learning about turning off taps to conserve water. Venom turned the sound back on, and Eddie gave them one last rub, before going back to the stove to finish off making his breakfast. On screen, Cookie Monster and his father were examining the dripping tap, and arguing about who would get to turn it off.

 **_Cookie Monster is like me,_ **they observed.

“How do you figure?” Eddie came over with a plate piled high with food, and sat next to them on the couch.

**_They would rather eat cookies than learn human rules. I would rather eat anything than learn human rules. Even mint!_ **

Eddie laughed. “And I’d rather go hunting with you all day instead of working, and yet here we are, learning our letters and getting ready to go on rounds.”

Venom perked up at that. **_Rounds!_ **

“I thought you’d like that.” Eddie offered them his toast, and they carefully only ate a quarter of the slice: it was warm and buttery and crunchy, and had almond spread on it, so it tasted like food. “It’s your turn to pick what we wear today. Better make it something warm.”

That reminded Venom of their surprise. **_We want to try something!_ **They poked a tendril at Eddie, and he obediently held out his free hand. They started with the sleeve, focusing on getting the details right -- mimicking the ribs of the cuff on Eddie’s hoodie, then starting work on the sleeve itself. Their body conformed to Eddie’s arm, but they let gravity drag their shape down a little, draping like fabric and creasing at the elbow. They paused at the shoulder, waiting for Eddie’s reaction.

Eddie dropped his plate onto the coffee table and touched the sleeve. “Holy shit, that’s fantastic!” He stroked them gently, and they basked in his pleasure and amazement. “Can you change the colour too? Like an octopus?”

 **_An octopus?_ ** The images in Eddie’s head were of a creature with a lot of tentacles and something called _Cthulhu_.

Pulling out his phone, Eddie did a quick search, and then showed them a video of an aquatic animal changing colour until it was almost impossible to see. Then it exploded out of its rocky niche and grabbed a passing crab with its tentacles. The crab was eaten before it could even put up a struggle.

**_Again!_ **

They watched the video again, and then Eddie found some more. Venom thought that octopuses were outstanding. They would make good Hosts.

**_Can we meet an octopus?_ **

“I see how it is,” Eddie said. “Superseded by seafood.”

**_No! You are mine!_ **

“Well, in that case, I guess we could go to the aquarium while we’re downtown.” Eddie patted the sleeve they had made again. “Do you think with some practice you could make a whole jacket like this?”

**_Yes. And then you can stop wearing ugly hoodies._ **

Clutching at his chest, Eddie swooned back against the couch, his face screwed up with lines going everywhere. “Stabbed, right in the heart!”

Humour was something the Klyntar didn’t have -- not in the same way humans did -- but it was something Eddie liked, so they were trying to learn how to do it on purpose. Venom did a quick check of Eddie’s vitals, just to be sure, but he was unharmed. Eddie was just playing with them.

He made an exaggerated sound of pain, and then went still, feigning death. He looked stupid. No predator would believe he was dead.

Venom mimicked the sound of Eddie’s laughter.

Eddie cracked one eye open, and then the other, staring at them. Then he started laughing too, his face wearing his _I love you_ look, blood fizzing with delicious feelings. He slipped both hands around their head and rubbed, and everything felt so good. It was like the best days in the Hive, when no-one was hungry and they all swam together, plasma merging and parting, every movement bringing a new sibling into contact and offering a new opportunity to exchange body memories.

They couldn’t do that with Eddie, so instead they darted forward and licked Eddie’s face, feeling the prickle of stubble on his chin and tasting the remnants of egg on his teeth. Eddie’s skin was soft and tasty, and they wanted to lick him all over.

Before they could try, Eddie jerked back, his fingers gripping them tightly to hold them away from his face. He licked his teeth where their tongue had touched, and looked like he was about to say _yuck._ Venom worried they had done something wrong.

“No! You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just… humans mostly don’t lick each other.”

**_Yes they do! You licked us when Annie was our Host!_ **

Some of the tension left Eddie’s body, and he began stroking their head again. “Okay, you have a point there. That was kissing. There are rules about who you can kiss and when, especially with tongue.”

 **_Rules,_ **they said scornfully.

“Yeah,” Eddie said. “That kiss with Annie was a bit of a loophole, because she and I used to date. But you can kiss me without tongue whenever you like.” He bussed a quick closed-mouth kiss on the dome of their head, as he often did when his blood was full of affection.

It was nice, but it wasn’t as nice as sliding tendrils together.

**_But why can’t I lick you? You taste good._ **

“Do I?” Eddie looked pleased. “Well, I guess it’s okay if you want to lick me on the face or hands, but not my mouth without asking me first.”

That was a silly rule, but Venom decided to argue about it later. They leaned forward, eager for the demonstration.

Eddie hesitated, and then licked a stripe just to the side of their mouth. His tongue was wet and slippery against their plasma, and it was even better than when he pretended to eat them in the shower. It made them thrum with pleasure.

They licked him back, from jaw to ear, and this time Eddie didn’t pull away.

He rubbed his face against his shoulder afterwards and said, “It’s definitely time we went and cleaned our teeth.”

 **_But you haven’t finished your breakfast,_ ** they pointed out.

Eddie looked longingly at his plate, and then gave in and picked it up.

They happily settled in to lick at Eddie’s fingers as he finished off his toast.

\--

The aquarium wasn’t as crowded as Eddie had warned them it might be. There were small humans walking around wearing matching clothing -- _school kids_ \-- and clusters of people that Eddie identified as _tourists_ , but they had seen bigger crowds at the markets. Eddie was pleased.

“That’ll make this so much easier,” he murmured.

One of the first things they saw was an open pool of water that the school kids were clustered around. Some of them were writing notes on pieces of paper pegged to clipboards.  Venom leaned Eddie in that direction so they could see better.

“Okay, but no eating the exhibits. Someone will notice, and we’ll be kicked out long before we get to the octopus.”

Venom maintained an offended silence. It’s not like they ate _everything_.

“A-huh,” Eddie said, and put his hand into the water.

They extruded a tentacle from the cuff of the jacket they were pretending to be, and poked at one of the spiny creatures sitting in the pool. It had no real thoughts, other than a vague awareness of water currents and food, but its surface had an interestingly knobbly texture. It smelled tasty, and it was a shame they couldn’t take a nibble.

Eddie snorted and withdrew his hand, and they reluctantly retracted back into the cuff.

Eddie seemed to know where he was going, so they took the opportunity to look around. The way the glass kept back so much water was ingenious, and the creatures swimming around reminded Venom of the lobster tank Eddie had cooled off in after they had first joined. Everything looked so tasty!

They walked through a long tunnel, and then arrived at a large glass barrier that separated them from the octopuses, which looked just liked the videos but even larger.

**_Look, Eddie! They are like me!_ **

“They are a bit.” Eddie took them right up to the glass, and once a group of school kids moved away, he pressed a hand to it, so that Venom could peer inside more easily. Remembering the videos, Venom formed a tentacle with a row of circles on it, and pressed it to the glass. One of the octopuses noticed right away, and squirted over to them to take a closer look. It pressed its own arm to the glass, and they could see the way its own circles sucked the glass, clever and curious, and nothing like their mimicry. They wanted to find out more about them.

**_We want to say hello. How do we touch them?_ **

“Sorry, bud,” Eddie said. “The tank is locked so they can’t get out. We can only look.”

**_A cage?_ **

The light was too bright. It hurt. Someone walked by with a clipboard and a clicking pen. They froze, but could feel unseen eyes watching... _watching_ ... and they flinched back inside Eddie as someone said, “Human beings are disposable. But man and symbiote combined, this is the new race, a new species, a higher lifeform.” And Maria’s mouth was wet at the thought of food, and the air burned everywhere it touched them, and they were so _hungry.._.

When they emerged again, the world was grey with fog. Eddie was outside the aquarium, eating some M&Ms and leaning against the pier’s railing. He was staring out at the nothingness. They could hear human voices disembodied by the fog, and sealion voices lowing out over the water. They felt a long way away.

 **_Did the cameras see me?_ **they asked, suddenly panicked, remembering Eddie’s warnings about someone seeing and wanting to lock them up...

“No,” Eddie said, stroking a soothing hand over their head. “Don’t worry. I got us out of the aquarium before you did your disappearing act, and the fog had already come down out here. We got lucky. We’re good.”

They pushed into Eddie’s hand, taking the offered comfort. Eddie was so welcoming: solace against the harshness of the world. They couldn’t understand it. **_Eddie? Why do humans put everything in cages?_ **

Eddie sighed. His mental slide-show jumped from the aquarium to the lobster tank in the restaurant, to cages filled with dogs and cats, to prisons full of humans, and to the Life Foundation laboratories. “Do you remember how you thought it was funny when I said humans were the apex predator on this planet, and you kept looking for bigger animals with fangs and claws?”

They remembered. It was the day they had discovered rats.

Eddie’s eyes were sad when he looked at them. “This is how it works. Humans grew brains instead of fangs, and language so we could be even smarter in groups, and we figured out how to lock up anything that threatened us. Or anything we were curious about. Or anything we didn’t like. And if we couldn’t figure out how to lock it up, we killed it. And we’re really, really good at it.”

They thought about that, trying to reconcile it with what they knew of the Human world. **_Humans are monsters_** , they decided. **_Like me._ **

“Yeah,” Eddie nodded. “That sounds about right.”

 **_But we can help each other be better,_ **they reminded him.

Eddie squinted at them suspiciously. “I remember saying something like that. But why do I suddenly have a bad feeling about it?”

They grinned at him, showing all of their teeth.

\--

The fog had lingered into the evening, turning the moon into fuzz, but Venom didn’t need it to see. They swung up onto the roof of the aquarium, Eddie only complaining a little about the height. It had been his idea to enter from the roof, after all.

"Fewer cameras," he had argued, and they had immediately agreed.

They found the air vent, and ripped off the cover. The slide down into the building was easy, and they ended up near a catwalk that looked down into one of the larger tanks. They could see shadows sliding through the water below them.

“This tank’s too big. It should be that way.” Eddie pointed to a doorway leading into another area.

After dipping an exploratory tendril into a few tanks (and then hastily removing them from the path of creatures with teeth almost as big as their own), they found the octopus tank. They added suction cups to their tendril, lowered it down, and politely tapped the first octopus on the arm before seeping inside enough to introduce themself.

The octopus reacted quite well to suddenly hearing their thoughts. It found them interesting, and called over its friend.

**_Octopuses are smart. They would make a good Host._ **

“Cute,” Eddie said. “I bet they won’t buy you an iPhone once you learn to read, though.”

For an apex predator that relied on brains, sometimes Eddie was very stupid. **_You are not a Host, Eddie. We are a Hive now. You said. No leaving!_ **

Eddie’s happy hormones surged, but his voice sounded gruff and uneven when he said, “We’re gonna be the best Hive, sweetheart.”

Yes. They already knew that.

The second octopus decided they didn’t want to leave their favourite human -- a red-headed woman who brought them crabs and played with them -- and declined their jailbreak offer. The first octopus accepted, wrapping its limbs around them tightly, suckers clinging to their surface as they lifted it out of the tank. Once it was clear, it smoothed out its surface and re-coloured itself to match them, and they took note of the way it did so -- relaxing its papillae to make its skin flat, and expanding hundreds of little sacs of colour until only black was left.

“Wow,” Eddie said, and Venom agreed.

The octopus was pleased by their admiration.

They retraced their route to the air-vent, shimmying up and out. They didn’t bother to put the lid back on.

“I wonder if they’ll think the octopus did it?” Eddie seemed amused by the idea.

They climbed down to the pier, and then dropped a tentacle down into the water. It was was chilly against their surface as the octopus inched its way down and into the bay. It asked if they wanted to come for a swim, but they were hungry, and didn’t want to risk eating it by mistake. It splayed two arms against them for a moment in a friendly _goodbye_ , and then pushed off, clearly reveling in being back home.

It followed them as they walked back along the pier, and then peeled away as the water became shallow, disappearing into the dark.

Venom shifted, so that they were no longer covering Eddie completely -- once again shaped like Eddie’s jacket, and protecting him from the foggy night air.

"Happy?" Eddie asked.

Venom didn't feel happy they way humans did, with all those surging hormones. But they did feel peaceful. As though they had finally found the niche they belonged to here on Earth. 

**_Yes._ **

"Good," Eddie said. “Let’s go home, then. It's freezing.” 

 **_Home_** , they agreed, bundling Eddie up protectively, as though they were the Host, and Eddie was the one who needed them to live.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Venom has a PTSD flashback to the Life Foundation. There is mention of Venom eating various animals, and mentions of human atrocities in general.
> 
> No octopuses were harmed in the writing of this fic. :)
> 
> SPOILERS:  
> I did a bit of research into octopuses in aquariums when writing this, and it turns out that some (not all) octopuses are only kept for a short time and then released, because they get too bored and stressed in captivity. Venom wouldn't know that, and nor would the octopus or Eddie, so there was no way to include it in a way that flowed easily with the rest of the story.


End file.
